Playhouse, commissioner reach funding agreement

Friday

Nov 30, 2012 at 4:30 AM

After two weeks of gloomy news, Thursday was a good day for the financially strapped Flat Rock Playhouse.

By Nathaniel Axtell and Emily WeaverTimes-News Staff Writers

After two weeks of gloomy news, Thursday was a good day for the financially strapped Flat Rock Playhouse.First, county Commissioner Larry Young, the most vocal critic of financial management at the Playhouse, helped broker a tentative deal to release $50,000 of county funds to the theater company in exchange for greater fiscal oversight.Meanwhile, corporate and private donors stepped forward with $150,000 in commitments, said Producing Artistic Director Vincent Marini. That's on top of $43,700 collected already during a theater fundraising blitz.All together, Playhouse leaders have said they need $250,000 by the end of the year to survive the winter. Young met with Playhouse leaders, county staffers and roughly 15 other stakeholders — both Playhouse critics and supporters — for three hours on Thursday morning in his office at the Historic Courthouse in Hendersonville. “I think it was a very productive meeting,” Young said. “I think it's going to save Flat Rock Playhouse and put them on a better path. They've assured me they're going to make financial changes, and that's all I wanted; just throwing $50,000 out there, that was like spitting in the ocean.”During the meeting, an anonymous donor said she would commit $100,000 to the Playhouse if matched, dollar for dollar, by new private or government donations. Those in attendance said the surprise offer pushed negotiations over the top.“It changed the whole discussion in the room,” said businessman Jeff Miller, who described early parts of the meeting as a “slugfest ... Then people started anteing up and before you know it, the whole tone changed.”The parties hashed out an agreement in which Young will encourage the release of $50,000 remaining from a $100,000 allocation the Board of Commissioners had budgeted for the Playhouse last summer if certain steps are taken. Chief among those steps is that the Playhouse first use the county funds to hire a “new financial overseer for the Playhouse corporation, who will have day-to-day control over its fiscal operations.” Marini and Bill McKibbin, president of the Playhouse's board of trustees, said the 60-year-old theater company has been looking for a financial manager skilled in nonprofit operations since October, when General Manager Dale Bartlett resigned.“They can do some things that I can't, which include things like giving us more opportunities to export our product to other places and creating a strong business plan for the future,” Marini said. McKibbin said the organization already has job descriptions and is ready to start advertising for the position in the coming week, both locally and in theater industry publications. At the meeting called by Young, he also outlined a business plan for 2013 that calls for cost-cutting and increased revenue streams.“They're also going to produce plays that the public around here can support, with no foul language or sex or anything like that,” said Young, who said he was concerned about the increasing tawdriness of Playhouse performances. “So we got that solved, too.”On Nov. 21, commissioners voted 4-1 to freeze the remaining Playhouse funds, citing concerns about the nonprofit's financial management and long-term viability. But board procedure required a second vote before the cash would be withheld or disbursed in two more quarterly payments. That decision will now likely occur Jan. 7.In acquiescing, Young also called upon the Village of Flat Rock to match the county's $100,000 contribution, arguing that no other area of the county benefits from the Playhouse more than the village. The village council will meet Monday to discuss a vote it took last month to ban further contributions to nonprofits such as the Playhouse.“What we accomplished today was huge,” said Miller, “and it was people from each side of the fence involved here. There were some very passionate arguments, but the bottom line is, there is a very solid business plan in place.”Though thrilled with Thursday's windfall, Marini stressed the $100,000 has to be matched by other donors. The theater is on its way after Mission Health System committed $25,000 Thursday, and two unnamed donors together anted up $25,000, Marini said. Marini added that the Playhouse needs to sell enough tickets throughout the 2012 season and yield enough season subscriptions for 2013 if the theater is to survive.Traditionally, the Playhouse renews $150,000 to $175,000 in season tickets each December, Marini said. “If people don't renew those and buy tickets to the Nutcracker and Celtic Christmas, it makes our fundraising burden even greater,” he said. “We're really at a tipping point.”He also said the theater's future viability will not change if the Playhouse doesn't meet its long-term goal of raising $1 million, which will provide it “with the foundation for the next five years. We don't want to just kick the can down the road. We want to permanently solve the problem.”Reach Axtell at 828-694-7860 or than.axtell@blueridgenow.com.